In the Dell third-party software whenever we deal with the need of active management, technically called SAM, Software Asset Management.

Before we talk about how to use the SAM it is important to understand the difference between a SAM and inventory, most common and simple functionality of System Center Configuration Manager.

While the inventory is only a inventory of the software installed on the machines (desktops and servers), SAM involves an intensive work with the inventory data. In simple terms, SAM is the analysis of data collected by someone who knows to indicate licensing best practices aimed at reducing costs.

As an example of efficient consolidation include a SAM database server, processing and virtualization on-push to cloud.

In most cases we use the MAP (Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit) to inventory, but when the client has System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) installed the process is much simpler, because the data are ready.

The biggest advantage of SCCM on the MAP is the fact that the MAP be a passive tool based on on-shoot, as well as doing search using network protocols. SCCM has the active agent and generates data more complete as the Software Metering and Asset Intelligence with critical reports on use of software.

During the next few weeks I will put together a series of articles with usage tips and rules of SAM with SCCM, with topics: